Happy Days Ends at Goodspeed, but Tour is Starting

Goodspeed Musicals' popular, extended run of Happy Days: A New Musical, based on the TV series about a family and their friends in 1950s Milwaukee, ends July 4 at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, CT.

Happy Days got an added week at Goodspeed due to ticket demand. The show is based on the hit Paramount Pictures television series created by Garry Marshall, who also wrote the libretto, with music and lyrics by Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe-winning songwriter Paul Williams ("We've Only Just Begun," "Rainy Days and Mondays" and "An Old Fashioned Love Song").

A separate national tour of the show will launch this fall. PS Classics released a cast album of the Paper Mill production earlier this year.

According to Goodspeed, "Richie, Fonzie, Ralph, Potsie, and all your favorites from the smash-hit TV series are rockin' and rollin' all week long. The laughs never end in a celebration of poodle skirts, jukeboxes, motorcycles and malt shops. 1959 is cool again as the gang tries to save Arnold's in a sock hoppin', engines revvin' new musical for the entire family. These days are yours and mine…"

Keep Reading

Cyd Charisse dies in L.A. at 86

Cyd Charisse, the long-legged Texas beauty who danced with the Ballet Russe as a teenager and starred in MGM musicals with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, died Tuesday. She was 86.

Charisse was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Monday after suffering an apparent heart attack, said her publicist, Gene Schwam.

She appeared in dramatic films, but her fame came from the Technicolor musicals of the 1940s and 1950s.

Classically trained, she could dance anything, from a pas de deux in 1946's "Ziegfeld Follies" to the lowdown Mickey Spillane satire of 1956's "The Band Wagon" (with Astaire).

She also forged a popular song-and-dance partnership on television and in nightclub appearances with her husband, singer Tony Martin.

Her height was 5 feet, 6 inches, but in high heels and full-length stockings, she seemed serenely tall, and she moved with extraordinary grace. Her flawless beauty and jet-black hair contributed to an aura of perfection that Astaire described in his 1959 memoir, "Steps in Time," as "beautiful dynamite."

Keep Reading...

Cyd Charise Tribute


Source: johnxxx20000

Fred Astaire & Cyd Charise


Source: saltybroad

Hairspray arrives in Philly

“IF LIFE WERE EVERYTHING IT SHOULD BE, IT WOULD BE MORE LIKE ‘HAIRSPRAY.’”

—The New York Times

ARRIVES IN PHILADELPHIA!

OPENS AT ACADEMY OF MUSIC MAY 2 – 4



Tickets On Sale Now!



It’s time to let your hair down and dance the night away! HAIRSPRAY, Broadway’s musical comedy phenomenon that inspired a major motion picture is coming to the Academy of Music May 2 – 4. This fantastically fun musical, winner of eight 2003 Tony Awards including Best Musical, is currently enjoying its 5th year on Broadway. The 2007 West End production of HAIRSPRAY was nominated for a record-breaking 11 Olivier Awards and nabbed four, including the top category Best New Musical, and also won Best New Musical in all of Britain’s other top awards programs, including the Evening Standard, Critic’s Circle, and Whatsonstage Awards.

And now, back by popular demand, the people of Philadelphia will once again be swept away to 1960s Baltimore in this international smash-hit musical, piled bouffant-high with laughter and romance – and enough deliriously tuneful songs to fill a nonstop platter party. It’s HAIRSPRAY, live on stage, in living color!

Part of the Cadillac Broadway Series, tickets ranging in price from $25 to $70 are on sale now. A limited number of premium box seats are available for $100. Tickets can be purchased by calling 215-731-3333, online at www.kimmelcenter.org/broadway, at the Kimmel Center box office, Broad & Spruce Streets (open daily 10 am to 6 pm) or at the Academy of Music box office (during performances only). Groups of 15 or more will receive discounts for select performances by calling 215-790-5883 or 866-276-2947. Performances include: Friday and Saturday evenings (May 2 & 3) at 8:00 pm; Sunday evening (May 4) at 6:30 pm; matinees Saturday at 2:00 pm, and Sunday at 1:00 pm.

Everyone is raving about this delightful musical, including the critics. “A great big fat gorgeous hit,” claims Clive Barnes of the New York Post. “A must-see for every teenage dreamer who believes anything is possible,” say Georgina Brown of London’s The Mail on Sunday. “So many numbers bring down the house, it’s a wonder the theater is still standing,” says Jeremy Gerard of New York Magazine.

In HAIRSPRAY it's 1962—the '50s are out and change is in the air. Baltimore's Tracy Turnblad, a big girl with big hair and an even bigger heart, has only one passion—to dance. She wins a spot on the local TV dance program, “The Corny Collins Show” and, overnight, is transformed from outsider to irrepressible teen celebrity. But can a plus-size trendsetter in dance and fashion vanquish the program's reigning princess, win the heart of heartthrob Link Larkin, and integrate a television show without denting her 'do? Only in HAIRSPRAY! Welcome to the '60s!



HAIRSPRAY is based on the New Line Cinema film written and directed by John Waters, who served as a creative consultant on the musical comedy. It features a book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan. HAIRSPRAY features an original score by Academy Award-nominated Marc Shaiman (who co-wrote the music and lyrics for the acclaimed animated musical, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut) and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. This production of HAIRSPRAY is based on Jack O’Brien’s original direction and Jerry Mitchell’s original choreography, recreated by Matt Lenz and Danny James Austin, respectively. Scenic design is by David Rockwell; the set coordinator is Michael Allen; costume design is by William Ivey Long; lighting design is by Kenneth Posner and Paul Miller; the sound is by Shannon Slaton; wig and hair design is by Paul Huntley; and the musical supervisor is Lon Hoyt. HAIRSPRAY is produced by NETworks Presentations.

The 2007-2008 Cadillac Broadway Series marks the first full season of cooperation between Kimmel Center, Inc. and Shubert Organization, Inc., where theatrical presentations in Philadelphia will be presented at the Academy of Music and the Forrest Theatre. In addition to Hairspray, the 2007-2008 season includes: Gypsy (May 9-11); David Copperfield: An Intimate Evening of Grand Illusion (May 16-17); Oprah Winfrey Presents The Color Purple (June 17-July 13); Mamma Mia! (July 15-27); and Monty Python’s SPAMALOT (Aug.14-31).

All performances of the Cadillac Broadway Series are supported by Cadillac, CITI, Target, WPVI-TV 6, The Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Company, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News. American Airlines is the Official Airline of Cadillac Broadway Series.